Study finds perception of time linked to heartbeat
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Loading... - Dominic Wilson
- 10 Mar 2023
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How long is the present? The answer, researchers suggest in a new study, depends on your heart. They found that our momentary perception of time is not continuous but may stretch or shrink with each heartbeat.
The research builds evidence that the heart is one of the brain's important timekeepers and plays a fundamental role in our sense of time passing -- an idea contemplated since ancient times, said Adam K. Anderson, professor of psychology.
"Time is a dimension of the universe and a core basis for our experience of self," Anderson said. "Our research shows that the moment-to-moment experience of time is synchronized with, and changes with, the length of a heartbeat."
The study, "Wrinkles in Subsecond Time Perception are Synchronized to the Heart," published in the journal Psychophysiology.
Time perception typically has been tested over longer intervals, when research has shown that thoughts and emotions may distort our sense time, perhaps making it fly or crawl. Such findings, Anderson said, tend to reflect how we think about or estimate time, rather than our direct experience of it in the present moment.
To investigate that more direct experience, the researchers asked if our perception of time is related to physiological rhythms, focusing on natural variability in heart rates. The cardiac pacemaker "ticks" steadily on average, but each interval between beats is a tiny bit longer or shorter than the preceding one, like a second hand clicking at different intervals.
The team harnessed that variability in a novel experiment. Forty-five study participants -- ages 18 to 21, with no history of heart trouble -- were monitored with electrocardiography, or ECG, measuring heart electrical activity at millisecond resolution. The ECG was linked to a computer, which enabled brief tones lasting 80-180 milliseconds to be triggered by heartbeats. Study participants reported whether tones were longer or shorter relative to others. Read More…
